Yair Lapid Promises to Offer Assistance to Anglos for the Coronavirus Pandemic

Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition, recently had a Zoom meeting with over 600 English-speaking participants. At the town hall meeting, he announced that the Yesh Atid Party has decided that they will have coalition talks after the election on the 23rd of March. 

According to Lapid, his party will demand control of the Integration Ministry, Aliyah, and the Knesset Aliyah, the Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee. 

The opposition leader also promised that he will be creating a special and experienced task force. The purpose of this team will be to help immigrants cope-up with and overcome challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic. 

He further noted that his father, Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, who also happened to be the former justice minister, confessed to him that even though he was responsible for making Aliyah at the age of 17, he never felt like he belonged. Yosef always felt like an immigrant in the country. 

The leader of the Yesh Atid Party went on to talk about his father. He revealed that his father used to talk about how an immigrant is always grateful and never takes anything for granted. 

On Tuesday night, Lapid directly addressed the immigrants from English-speaking countries, agreeing that their being here is a choice that they made. He appreciated their commitment to life in Israel and revealed that he had been having conversations with people who care, with all their heart, about the situation in Israel. 

Lapid asserted that Yesh Atid considers the issues of the immigrants, who belong to English-speaking countries, as its own. 

The opposition leader went on to say that even if there is one oleh in the country, who cannot leave to pay a visit to their ill parent, it is the problem of the party itself. 

Lapid also talked about how the President of the United States, Joe Biden, did not call Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel. It has been three weeks since the new President was inaugurated yet, there has been no contact from him. The opposition leader believes that Israel needs a new government if it wants to get along with the Biden administration. 

The Yesh Atid Party leader predicted that if his party is able to receive around 22 or 23 seats, a coalition will easily be formed. 

When asked about bringing electoral reform, Lapid said that he is against dividing the State of Israel into different regions. However, he said that he fully supports the idea to raise the electoral threshold from 3.25% to at least 5 or 6%. Additionally, he guaranteed that the government will last for all four years. 

According to Lapid, the goal of his party is stability and governance. He went on to add that the reason there is a lot of blackmailing in the political system of the country is the government’s endless votes of no confidence. In his opinion, the Prime Minister of Israel is only a hostage to all the parties in his coalition.